If America doesn’t protect democratic allies they lose confidence in America too. So what are you saying? That risk is not as great as risks related to Putin starting WWIII or launching nukes? I often like your writing Scott - despite our major disagreement on Ukraine - but I’m scratching my head at these points towards the end.

Had America not helped Ukraine at all our word to other democracies around the world would mean nothing. Ukraine may not be a NATO country but they’ve long been an ally. One that Russia even made concessions to when Ukraine agreed to give up its nukes back in the 90s. But you never write about that.

Imagine how Taiwan would feel if America and the West had just let Putin steamroll into Kyiv.

We still need to define success in Ukraine in conjunction with their government - we’ve failed miserably there, I’ll give you that - but to compare this war with those in Iraq and Afghanistan is the height of false equivalence.